MARGATE - memorably summarized by Oscar Wilde as "the nom-de-plume of Ramsgate" - is a ragged assortment of cafés, shops and amusement arcades wrapped around a broad bay, a rather less elegant place than the one with which it's been twinned, the Black Sea resort of Yalta. Yet two centuries of tourism are embodied by Margate: at its peak thousands of Londoners were ferried down the Thames every summer's day, to be disgorged at the pier - precursor of all such seaside struc... [More]